Gap jumps. How do I get over myself (and the gap!)

So, following this thread I posted up last week…

So today, I tried Flats for the first time … 😬

Tonight, I spent a couple of hours with mates at a local jump spot, sessioning lines, jumps (and a lot of me rolling into stuff and going “Nah!”)

It’s not something I’ve ever done before. I ride through and past this spot all the time, but it’s never been a priority to session stuff like this; usually, I just want to ‘go for a ride’.

Anyway, I do want to progress.

But have a real mental block with gap jumps. There’s something about the missing bit of dirt between take off and landing that I find really difficult to get my head around. Similar size jumps/table tops are OK (ish).

Any tips or advice?

Practice and start smaller than you think so you get the technique sorted…need to be confident you can cover the distance so the middle isn’t a concern.
Find tabletops and make sure you are confident clearing them and then find some smaller gaps and then practice those until confident and then find slightly bigger ones and practice.

Easy enough to type, harder to do and practice.

As above. Plus tow-ins. Follow a mate who’s not hugely better than you.

yeah, follow someone in, aonyku k ow you have the speed

Yeah, tried quite a bit of that (being towed in), but just lacked the self-belief I was going to make it, so kept bottling it and bailing.

It’s very much a mental block thing for me.

There’s also something about being scared of being in the air for more than about a 50th of a second! I’m OK with general trail riding, popping off roots, rocks, small drops etc, but there’s something about going up into the air, feeling suspended, and then the feeling of coming down again, that I also think I need to get more used to!

Guess it’s just practice and small steps. And maybe some coaching.

You need to develop your speed judgement on tables first. Clear one and then roll in slower and faster and adjust pop accordingly. This will develop your frame of reference for speed x distance

Pump tracks are good to practise on

Also not all jumps are created equal. Need to find a small table with a *bit* of a kick to get used to how the bike behaves, but not too much of a kick as to get you bucked over the front.

Problem with where we were tonight is that there aren’t any small tables like that. But there is a good medium sized one.

With the eight year olds, I have a take off ramp and a landing ramp.
I start with them an inch apart and slowly open them a little every jump.
Then once the gap is big enough to drop a wheel into I add a log or something – if they fluff it they’ll know about it, but it won’t kill them.
Once it’s over a metre or so I put a shipping pallet in for the same reason.
Most get up to 1.5 metre gaps relatively easily.

You already know the answer.

It’s a psychological thing and you’re beating yourself up.

Go easy, start with tables, try and relax.

I triggered my shift in mindset when I realised that riding any gap less than 6′, you front wheel is over or on the landing before your back wheel has left the ground. It all seemed a bit more logical after that.

Finding a bit of shape in the air helps too, nose into the landing

Left field approach coming..

Eye it up, ONCE. Look no more. Don’t over calculate.

Trust the run in. (Presuming its been done before)

TRUST your bike. It’s absolutely amazing. (Aren’t they all now?)

Think ONLY of the result. Visualise success. Anything less, leads to over calculation.

Get a mate to film it. See yourself. So on your third attempt, it’s easy.

THIS, is exactly what happened to myself several weeks ago in the tunnel hill area. My mate, rode up to it, and stopped, over calculated, like 8 seperate times. Didn’t hit it. I did this once, went up for the run in, & hit it. Cased it, but hit. So what ? Third time no probs.

The end.

These days, these jumps we all see, unless they are covered in carpet they are that steep, most are way doable. Because of our bikes. Get your head around that, and your swizzle will sky rocket.

Here is the secret to unlock your brain to allow you to jump.

1. find a small gap jump

2. get off your bike

3. walk to the top of the lip

4. from a standing start jump across it

5. did you make it?

Of course you did and you will have no problem when travelling at 15mph on your bike.

Now go hit it!!!

I’m not good at jumps, which usually means you shouldn’t give advice but maybe it’s useful to have a dobber’s approach…

For me it was entirely about finding a gap that I didn’t like, and a tabletop that was pretty much the same. Repeated tabletop until I could nail it every single time, at whatever speed, with confidence. Transferred that to the gap. Course, this is mostly about the skills side, I overcame the psychological side with the repetition and confidence but that isn’t going to work for everyone when it’s the less rational OMG a gap.

I did find it fairly useful to case the absolute **** out of some gaps, too. You can screw up really quite badly on a lot of gaps and just carry on, that’s quite a useful thing to know and trust in

Full pelt, eyes shut.

Screaming is counterintuitive and only works against you take off velocity.

For success… Don’t video it.

For everyone elses enjoyment… Do.

Practice on tables

Get a tow in

Use the death grip*

*A grip with thumbs over fingers to stop unconscious braking.

If you’re braking whilst unconscious it’s definitely too late 😂

@crispyrice that actually sounds like a decent mind trick.  But doesn’t explain how I can manage to case a jump I’d be pretty confidant about jumping over on foot (!)

It’s all about progression.

If you don’t jump much, going to hit gap jumps is going to be scary. If you can confidently clear tables on every attempt then it becomes very much a mindset thing.

About a year ago I went right back to basics with jumping. I started to make sure I had a good front wheel lift technique without having to yank up on the bars (turns out I didn’t). Then moved to using that to bunnyhop a stick, consistently. Then I moved on to two sticks and just started moving them apart. Simple stuff, but fundamental for getting the timing right on the takeoff as speed.

Once I’d done that I started going back to a local jump spot that had a perfect table for the job, steeper takeoff but mellow landing. Just practiced hitting it at different speeds to get used to how much effort I need to make on takeoff to still clear the jump.

After that, it is just a matter of being comfortable on the bike and in the air, and hitting small gaps becomes and extension of that. That said, I still can’t hit gaps on super steep dirt jumps!

The whole “work out how big it is by jumping on foot” or working out that the gap is barely longer than your bike trick worked for me. Once cleared, I’d play with how slow I could go to clear the jump, which sometimes felt like I was barely moving!

Then the fear starts again when you work up to gaps of multiple bike lengths. I guess at that point another trick is needed, and a better advisor (than me) is also required 😄

hardtail only, get a full sus, big travel make it far easier to weight and unweight the bike..

Well don’t do what I did.  Too slow, came up short and face planted.  So next run went way too fast, overshot landing, landing on the nose of the bike, face planting again, breaking both scaphoids and my collar bone.

You are right to be cautious and take it easy!

When I went for coaching with Tony / ukbikeskills, he had a great setup with a gap jump next to a tabletop, identical profiles except for the middle. Hill before them with stones to mark along the side. Start at the bottom, roll with brakes off at the tabletop. Keep going further up until you’re comfortably clearing the table then switch to the gap jump.

It reminds me, I must book again because I’ve lost a lot of that confidence from last time.

See you soon simon 👊

IIRC Jedi has a mental checklist to run through when doing something like a gap jump for the first time.  I’ll probably be wrong, but I think one element is ‘can I commit to this?’ which is the key for me (and the part I struggle with most vs ‘can I do it?’ – ie I’m quite confident in my ability but but getting the bottle to actually hit something is the hard part).  As long as you have the technique, being able to commit is huge on something like a gap or drop, as if you go in cautious this is when the big errors happen (see Pinkbike Friday Fails for many examples).

I’ve recently hit a gap (not a deep pit, but c25ft take off to landing) that I’ve spent 20 years avoiding.  It took full commitment (you have to hit it FAST – if you come up short there’s a big chance of a buck), a few weeks ago I asked for a tow in off a local and hit it after a sighting run, massive buzz after landing safely..  I’ve got another elsewhere to tick off now, that’s next on my list.

You need to develop your speed judgement on tables first. Clear one and then roll in slower and faster and adjust pop accordingly. This will develop your frame of reference for speed x distance

+1 (It’s Jedi, of course it’s right)

Start on a pump track with really small tables. you learn just how hard you have to push when going slowly just to get airborne long enough. Then you can build up the speed until you’re having to squash it. Then repeat on something slightly bigger.

When it then comes to gaps, it’s easier top just not overthink it. If it doesn’t happen first time, don’t go back for a third or 4th. Go back another day when you’re more confident.  I’m moderately confident hitting gaps on a trail, I’m awful in a skills area.

Get a mate to film it. See yourself. So on your third attempt, it’s easy.

Also +1, the right kind of peer pressure applied once you know you can do it.  We were messing about on the skills line at FoD, I think the only jump I cleared was the one we were photographing! Every other one I was in some way not committing to properly.

dont practice on jumps that have a really long run in that make checking your speed difficult.  Like a jump in the middle of a flat field for instance.

Most gap jumps on trails will be built to the speed of the previous feature.  a corner or something.  That corner speed will put you in the ball park where you either need a dab of brakes or a crank or two. worth practicing on them

dont know why i cant edit my post above but need to caveat the above.  the above depends on your trail speed being correct/ball park.  If it isn’t, maybe focus on that too.

Doing it on well built jumps can also make a difference. For example I don’t think I’ve ever come across a dodgy lip at Twisted Oaks but I can’t say the same about all bike parks or jump spots.